Drying installations for desiccating various products by virtue of dehydrating are under very widespread application both in industry and in some other fields of the national economy, e.g. in the textile industry for drying fibres, yarn, threads and fabric at various stages of fabrics production processes, in the food industry for drying diverse products and foodstuffs both during their manufacture and storage in storehouses, for drying dyed, coloured or painted components and products practically in every field of the national economy, as well as for preheating various equipment, such as instruments, machine tools, electric motors before starting.
As a rule, the heating temperature in such drying installations ranges within 50.degree. to 300.degree. C. depending upon the object to be dried and the required drying conditions.
Conventionally industrial drying installations featuring diverse heat-reception methods are known to comprise a chamber made as a framework provided with a heat screening of the drying zone, fashioned from, for example, fibreglass mats enclosed in a metallic gauze and held to a framework.
Depending upon the temperature drying conditions and the purpose of the drying installation, such driers make use of most diverse means for heat admission into the chamber to dry the objects therein being dried. For instance, in the case of the convective method of heat reception employed as such means can be air heaters with nozzle ducts, in the case of the conductive method, drums, and in the case of the radiation method, directional-action heat energy radiators.
Such chambers, however, are very ponderous and bulky and, therefore need a great deal of metal rolling stock for their manufacture; they consume much power for being preheated, especially at the moment of starting the drier and when changing to a higher temperature regime of drying. In addition, substantial power losses occur due to heat egress through the structural members of the chamber.
In stationary drying installations the devices for placing the objects under drying conditions can be made as trolleys, trucks, carts or stillages in the case of intermittent drying, and in the form of various conveyers in the case of continuous drying.
When drying large-sized painted objects, e.g., machine tools or motor-car components, these are arranged immediately in the chamber.
However, the drying installations of the character set forth above suffer from lack of easy access to the chamber interior where the objects under drying are located.
The present-day constructional arrangements of drying installations are difficult to be used as a base for making mobile drying installations.
The heretofore known industrial drying installations are aimed largely at coping with highly specialized tasks.
A prior-art installation for drying knitwear products (cf. USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 344,243 issued on May 11, 1970, cl. F26B 15/24) is known to comprise a chamber accommodating a conveyor for transferring the products to be dried, means for heat admission to the products being dried in the chamber, and an exhaust fan for withdrawing the used-up heat-transfer agent.
In order to provide access to the objects under drying the present state of the art knows drying installations with folding chambers.
A drying installation (cf. USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 235,634 cl. f26B 9/06, issued 1966) is known to comprise a folding chamber made up by a number of similarly shaped bearing members arranged one above another to form a framework and carrying an elastic covering held thereto, a means for heat admission to the objects under drying located in the chamber, and a means for withdrawing the used-up heat-transfer agent. The chamber is open from above, whereas the bearing members are shaped as hoops, each two of said hoops being articulated to each other through three pairs of straps, each pair of the straps is in turn hinged together so as to make it possible to form the entire chamber. This drying installation is made use of in food industry mostly for drying fruits, berries and mushrooms.
Drying occurs by virtue of hot air fed to the chamber along the piping running on the bottom of the chamber.
When the drying is over, the chamber is folded downwards, thus giving a relatively free access to the objects being dried, inasmuch as the chamber is comparatively small.
Conversely, if such a chamber is too large this proves to be inconvenient in service and interferes with free access to the objects under drying.